Hi All,
I've been reading Agricola's De Re Metallica and was fascinated by the
references to Gnomes and other fairy folk down the mines. Of particular
interest was the matter of fact mention Agricola makes, in a very serious
work.
Are there any other references to Gnomes etc. in early works of stature?
The other aspect which I found of interest was the linking of Gnomes to
Cobalt, has anyone came across this too?
I should say this is not an attempted wind up, I am genuinely interested in
past literary references to spirits in mines. The subject can today be
regarded as comical, but I have no doubt that Agricola believed he had seen
such things and they were commonplace.
-----Original Message-----
From: Newman, Phil [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 11 November 2002 12:30
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Gold from Mundic!
> At a copper mine in Devon that I'm currently writing up (Druid), there was
> much excitement in the 1850s at shareholders' meetings regarding
> experiments by an Australian called Calvert into extracting Gold from the
> gossans and mundic deposits in the mine using Berdan's 'gold amalgamating
> machine'. Can anyone tell me more about this apparatus? Did it actually
> work for example? I suspect in this case it was just another transparent
> attempt to rally the interest of shareholders in an unpromising mine where
> result were slow in coming, but its possible that Calvert's intentions
> were genuine.
>
> Many thanks
>
> Phil Newman
> English Heritage, Exeter
>
>
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